Basic pipe structures

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I often find before shutter covers that I need basic pipe functions like overflow and underflow.

Overflow setup

Overflow piping is to ensure that excess liquid is voided, allowing machinery to continue to function even if the destination tank is full.

For example, creosote oil might be placed into a drum and overflow voided.

There are 3 buckets of water in the top drum. This will empty downward into the black rubber pipe and into the first drum. A tiny blue pipe links to a second drum that would be an ender garbage bin normally to void the overflow.

When the source drum is connected to the pipe, it drains into the other two. Unfortunately it splits the output. The first drum received 2.3 buckets of water, the second drum (void) receive 0.7 buckets of water.

Thus this is a LOSSY overflow, with approximately 1/3 of the liquid always voided.

Underflow setup

Underflow piping ensures there is a minimum amount of liquid always in the pipe, leaving room for more.

For example, this can be used to recycle distilled water from turbines while adding more as needed from the main distilled water supply.

Here the source drum has 3 buckets of water, and will output to a tiny pipe below. Rubber pipes are the rest of the line to the final drum.

Tiny pipe can contain 100L, while a rubber pipe can contain 600L. The source will fill all the pipes to the capacity of the tiny pipe, or 100L.

The source drum was enabled to fill the tiny pipe, which now contains 100L of water.

Connecting the tiny pipe to the rubber pipe, now each rubber pipe also contains 100L (total 400L in 4 pipes). Each rubber pipe has 500L available for additional input.

I added 2 more buckets of water from the second source drum, and now the pipes contain 1900L total (3 * 600L + 1 * 100L), with a full 600L in the selected rubber pipe. 550L remains in the second source of the 2 buckets added to the pipes.

** One way valve **

A one way valve allows liquid flow only in one direction.

Here the blue pipe inputs to a drum, which outputs to the black pipe below. The fluid cannot flow backward from the black pipes to blue.

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2

I think this is relative to the ratio of flow and capacity between the large and small pipe.

Iā€™d love to find a way to make an overflow with no loss, without shutter covers.

I wonder if I could do it with a bucket-o-meter and a sticky piston moving a drum to connect the void.

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3

Pressure valve into drum.

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4

Is that a real thing?

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5

Yes it is how it works, you can ofcourse also use the garbage bin instead of the drum.

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I only ever used pressure valves on gasses, that works on liquids?

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Only if you attach something to the valves.

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8

Where was this documented? Wild. I never knew.

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9

Right! So a brass pressure valve can be used to make a lossless overflow!

In this example, the top blue drum had 64 buckets of water. It all went to the center bottom drum by pipe without loss. When 4 more buckets were added, the overflow went to the right drum under the pressure valve. There is still about 200ml floating in the pipes.

Thanks @laurynasl and @Gregorius for the tip!

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